Russian c-bank steps up efforts to block malicious Forex websites

Recently, the central bank has requested the blocking of 130 websites of Forex brokers that do not have the necessary licenses and/or are fraudulent entities.
The Central Bank of Russia continues to fight fraudulent activities in the Forex industry, with one of the key steps in this respect being the blocking of malicious websites. In an interview with Radio VestiFM, Valery Lyakh, Head of the Bank of Russia’s Department for Countering Malpractice, said that over the past months, the central bank has requested the blocking of 130 Forex websites.
The bank has no authority to block such websites so in such cases it has to turn to the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor), the Prosecution, and/or the Court. The websites in question are operated by Forex brokers without licenses from the Russian central bank or are operated by fraudulent entities.
As previously reported, the Central Bank is pushing for more powers when it comes to taking down or blocking access to such fraudulent websites. A bill drafted by the Ministry of Сommunications and Mass Media proposes amendments to the Law “On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection”. The bill aims to help the Russian authorities tackle financial fraud executed via the Internet. Quite often, Russian clients are targeted by foreign companies who offer their services through online platforms without having offices in Russia and without having the necessary Russian licenses.
The bill will grant the Bank of Russia powers to block access to websites of fraudulent financial companies, including non-licensed overseas FX entities, targeting Russian clients. In September this year, the Ministry of Economic Development published a positive assessment of the bill.
Binary options are also a popular form of fraud in Russia, Mr Lyakh has confirmed. He noted that binary options fraudsters manipulate investors via various psychological tricks, based on the human desire for fast gains. In the face of the growing number of such scams in Russia, the central bank is not regulating (and, hence, is not counteracting to) this type of fraud.